The sight of the burning books, their pages fluttering in the flames, draws people in, arrays them in a circle, like a magician at a fair who has ordered chickens to do as he says. People gaze into the flames and find they like this theatre of destruction, and a free-floating anger mounts within them, although they don’t know whom to turn it on—but their outrage more or less automatically makes them hostile to the owners of these ruined books.

Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob (p. 622)

Burning Books. A woman poet from 18th century Poland. And the Seven Years War. All in this week’s slow read of Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob.